Convenience foods (i.e., products which require a minimum amount of consumer preparation and are quick to prepare) are in high demand to accommodate today's busy lifestyles. Examples range from cheese and cracker snacks and canned stews to refrigerated bagels and some frozen dinners. Typically, such products will be eaten as packaged or after a brief heating period, preferably by microwave heating. Notably absent from this category are bread products.
Baked bread products are normally available as freshly prepared products that are intended to be consumed within a relatively short time period or as frozen products which can be stored in the frozen state for relatively long periods of time. Such frozen bread products, once thawed, generally must also be consumed within a relatively short time period. Baked bread products are generally not sold as refrigerated products. Once a fully baked bread product has been refrigerated, it tends to “toughen” or become leathery, stale, and/or dry. See, for example, David, English Bread and Yeast Cookery, American Edition, p. 255 (Viking Press, New York 1977). When such a bread product becomes “leathery” (a term of art), it becomes harder to chew and loses its “chewability.”
Reheating such a leathery bread product does not generally restore the bread's texture and may, in fact, further “toughen” it to form an even more leathery texture. Thus, while such a leathery bread product may be fully edible from all health and safety considerations, the consumer's enjoyment obtained from such a reheated product is generally less, often significantly less, than that experienced when the bread product was fresh; much of the loss of quality is due to the bread product becoming increasingly more leathery. Thus, fully baked bread products are not often found in grocery refrigerator cases.
Feldmeir et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,558, provided a meal kit containing a baked bread or dough product in a sealed pouch which is contained within a compartment contained within a base tray having an anti-fogging agent component. The anti-fogging agent assists in maintaining freshness and retarding staling under refrigerated, non-frozen conditions. Generally the anti-fogging agent is contained within a layer of the base trap or in other container elements so that enters the compartment in a time release manner so that it gradually blooms onto the internal surfaces within the meal kit. The anti-fogging agent is though to prevent the formation of water droplets within the container and thereby allow any trapped moisture to more easily evaporate from the meal kit.
There is a need for a bread product which can be baked, refrigerated, and subsequently eaten cold, warm, or hot (i.e., reheated) without further baking and without becoming leathery, and which retains the desired textural and taste properties. Moreover, there is a need for a fully baked bread product which can be used in a kit format and which retains its soft texture throughout the expected shelf life of the kit and remains tasty and chewable when eaten hot or cold. There further exists a need for a ready-to-eat bread product and kit containing a ready-to-eat bread product which can be refrigerated without the bread product becoming leathery, dry, and/or stale; and which remains equally tasty and satisfactorily chewable either hot or cold. There further exists a need for a ready-to-eat bread product and kit containing a ready-to-eat bread product which can be refrigerated without the bread product becoming leathery, dry, and/or stale; and which remains equally tasty and satisfactorily chewable either hot or cold and which does not require the use of an anti-fogging agent. It is generally preferred that the ready-to-eat bread product be provided as part of a kit containing other food products which can be consumed and enjoyed with the bread product.
The present invention provides such fully baked, ready-to-eat bread products and kits containing such bread products in combination with other complementary and associated food products. More particularly, the present invention provides fully baked, ready-to-eat breadstick products and kits containing such breadstick products in combination with other complementary and associated food products. The breadstick products of this invention can be eaten as is or after heating.